I study how access to foreign-born workers impacts firms and local economics in times of acute crisis. The 2020 H-2B visa lottery randomly gave some U.S. firms the chance to hire low-wage, migrant workers during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using administrative data across three...

Many immigrant destination countries face considerable pressure to change their immigration policies. One of the most innovative policies is auctioning the right to immigrate or to hire a foreign worker to the highest bidders. Visa auctions would be more efficient than current ways of allocating...

We compare winning and losing firms in lotteries for H-1B visas, matching administrative data on these lotteries to administrative tax data on U.S. firms and to approved U.S. patents. Winning one additional H-1B visa crowds out about 1.5 other workers at the firm. Additional H-1Bs have...

We examine how increasing the number of visas available to potential migrants would affect unauthorized immigration from Mexico to the U.S. Current U.S. policy bans people who are deported from receiving legal status for a period of time. This policy aims to serve as an additional deterrent to...

Although the "tragic choice" framework has not been applied in the context of U.S. immigration law, current immigration policy is rife with tragic choices, defined as a commitment by policy elites to maintaining certain illusions which shield from public view tough policy choices that offend...

Recent immigration policies have created massive uncertainty for international students to obtain F-1 visas. Yet, before the COVID-19 pandemic, student visa applicants already faced an approximately 27 percent refusal rate that varies by time and region. Using data on the universe of SAT takers...

We compare winning and losing firms in lotteries for H-1B visas, matching administrative data on these lotteries to administrative tax data on U.S. firms and to approved U.S. patents. Winning one additional H-1B visa crowds out about 1.5 other workers at the firm. Additional H-1Bs have...

"The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program is a lottery that awards winners from underrepresented countries the chance to apply for legal permanent resident status in the United States. The program serves as one of the main migration pathways for Africans entering the country, yet despite its long...

In the United States, rural and low-income communities have difficulty attracting and retaining physicians, potentially adversely impacting health outcomes. With a limited supply of physicians completing medical school at US universities, foreign-born and educated physicians provide a potential...

We study how access to high-skill labor affects the outcomes of start-up firms. We obtain exogenous variation in firms' ability to access skilled labor by using win rates in H 1B visa lotteries. Relative to other firms that also applied for H-1B visas, firms with higher lottery win rates are...

Visas are an important means for countries to regulate incoming mobility flows. Past datasets and quantitative research on visas have focused on visa waivers, ignoring the fact that visas, where demanded, can vary greatly by cost. This paper presents a novel dataset based on a manual collection...

In this paper, we review developments in Japanese inbound tourism and investigate the main determinants of its rapid growth prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a panel autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model with data on 34 tourism source markets from 1996Q1 to 2018Q4, we find that not...

We examine how increasing the number of visas available to potential migrants would affect unauthorized immigration from Mexico to the U.S. Current U.S. policy bans people who are deported from receiving legal status for a period of time. This policy aims to serve as an additional deterrent to...

In 2015 the Obama Administration authorized temporary work permits for the spouses of H-1B visa holders who were awaiting green cards. Over 90,000 of these H-4 visa holders have since received a work permit,1 known as an Employment Authorization Document (EAD), and three-fourths of them are...

We study how access to high-skill labor affects the outcomes of start-up firms. We obtain exogenous variation in firms' ability to access skilled labor by using win rates in H-1B visa lotteries. Relative to other firms that also applied for H-1B visas, firms with higher lottery win rates are...

We study how access to high-skill labor affects the outcomes of start-up firms. We obtain exogenous variation in firms' ability to access skilled labor by using win rates in H-1B visa lotteries. Relative to other firms that also applied for H-1B visas, firms with higher lottery win rates are...

Discusses the changes to the minimum age to establish an application for a visas for a spouse or partner from 18 years to 21 years, commenting on its role in preventing exploitation and forced marriages. Examines: (1) the development of the reasons for the changes, outlining the proposals of a...

Introduction. The Anatomy of State-Imposed Dependence -- The Visa Regime: Indian Migration and the Interplay of Race and Gender -- Model Migrants and Ideal Workers: How Visa Laws Penalize and Control -- Beholden to Employers: Gendered and Racialized Dependence -- At Home: Dependent Spouses and...

"In the years immediately after World War II, the United States broadcast to the world not just its power but its values. Sam Lebovic here focuses on one of those professed ideals: the free flow of information. That trope became a proxy for America's special brand of imperial democracy, and it...

The cross-border mobility of people, goods and services, and capital has expanded enormously both in intensity and diversity over recent decades. States have a general interest in facilitating these flows in order to benefit from economic globalisation. Yet, mainly due to security concerns, most...

The H-1B program allows skilled foreign-born individuals to work in the United States. The annual quota on new H-1B issuances fell from 195,000 to 65,000 for employees of most firms in fiscal year 2004. This cap did not apply to new employees of colleges, universities, and non-profit research...

The H-1B program allows skilled foreign-born individuals to work in the United States. The annual quota on new H-1B issuances fell from 195,000 to 65,000 for employees of most firms in fiscal year 2004. This cap did not apply to new employees of colleges, universities, and non-profit research...

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, there has been a global shift in the adoption of policies that reduce the impact of governments controlling the flow of the factors of production across borders. However, there remains an ideological and pragmatic element in many countries' policies, the...

We report a small-sample, preliminary evaluation of the economic impact of temporary overseas work by Haitian agricultural workers. This work occurs in the USA in the context of a pilot program designed as a form of post-disaster development assistance to Haiti. We find that the effects of...